Work on U.S. Highway 36 west of Lyons underway as CDOT aims at Dec. 1 opening

'Safe and passable' the early goal; permanent rebuilds to come later

By Tony KindelspireLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
09/22/2013 06:22:13 PM MDT

Colorado National Guard soldiers lead a group of Colorado Department of Transportation and state employees during a tour to look at the damage caused by recent flooding in the area on U.S. Highway 36 between Lyons and Pinewood Springs. Pavement is missing in many section of the road that connects Lyons to Estes Park. (Aaron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

Colorado Department of Transportation officials are holding to their date of Dec. 1 for having highways damaged by the flood of 2013 repaired. Repaired, as in "safe and passable." The damage was so severe to some roads that permanent repair likely wont even start until spring.

Hunt and Jerre Stead, the person appointed by Gov. John Hickenlooper to oversee the recovery, made a fly-over of damaged highways on Saturday. On Sunday morning, they took a ground tour of U.S. Highway 36 above Lyons, first driving as far as they could and then walking sections of the road.

"On some of the curves with the river, the roads are gone," said Stead, who is president and CEO of IHS, a global consulting company. "You walk on paths (about a foot wide) where the roads were ... and then you walk 200 yards and you wouldn't know there'd been a flood."

Forty percent of U.S. Highway 36 from Lyons to Estes Park is described as a "total loss," according to CDOT. That stretch of road includes 10 bridges, but officials don't yet know how many of those 10 are damaged, or how severely.

Hours after Sunday's tour, Hickenlooper prohibited all traffic on Highway 36 west of Lyons. The closure applies to vehicular, cycling and pedestrian traffic, the OEM said, and will specifically impact residents of the Spring Gulch and Blue Mountain areas. All access to Apple Valley Road will be severely restricted between the hours of 7 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Monday, CDOT will announce the three private-sector companies it is contracting with on the massive task of rebuilding damaged roads, the biggest such effort the state has ever seen, according to CDOT spokeswoman Amy Ford. Workers from those companies will join CDOT's own employees and the Colo. National Guard, which has already been mobilized and is making amazing progress already, Hunt said.

"To have the Guard out here this quick -- they have two platoons working out of Lyons and a platoon out of Estes Park," Hunt said.

"I wish you all could see the National Guard and CDOT (workers) and their attitude," added Stead, speaking with reporters after their tour at the Praha Restaurant & Bar near Hygiene. "I wish we could figure out a way to recognize them all."

Hunt said a long stretch of Highway 36 from Pinewood Springs to Big Elk Meadows is completely out, but beyond that it's driveable up to Estes Park. Residents of Pinewood have created a path where the road has been washed out and are using four-wheel-drive vehicles to shuttle food, gasoline and other supplies down from Estes Park.

Colorado National Guard soldiers lead a group of CDOT and state employees during a tour to look at the damage caused by recent flooding in the area on U.S. Highway 36 between Lyons and Pinewood Springs. Pavement is missing in many section of the road that connects Lyons to Estes Park.
(Aaron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

Once crews get 36 and Colo. Highway 7 between Lyons and Estes Park up and running they will shift their attention to U.S. Highway 34 between Loveland and Estes Park. The status of the road through the Big Thompson Canyon, rebuilt to withstand flooding after the deadly flood of 1976, is illustrative of what Mother Nature's fury can do: 85 percent of Highway 34 is a total loss, according to CDOT. That stretch includes 25 bridges.

Highway 7 has two bridges on the stretch from Lyons to Estes Park and is considered a 50 percent total loss.

One of the recovery teams will be solely dedicated to repairing state roads on the plains that were damaged as the flood worked its way downstream to communities such as Evans and Sterling -- particularly critical now because it's harvest time.

Ford said it's too early to put a price tag on the damage, but it will be astronomical.

"What we do know is it's certainly over the $100 million cap that we're limited to by the federal government," Ford said, adding that Colorado will likely apply for an exception that was used by New Jersey in the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Sandy. That exemption would allow Colorado to be eligible for up to $500 million.

Money to repair Colorado's interstates, state highways and major arterials will come through CDOT from the federal highway administration, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be providing the dollars for cities and counties to repair their roads, Ford said.

She said that a contingent from Vermont came to Colorado this past week to assess the damage and offer some suggestions on how Colorado can rebuild. They had overseen the rebuild from Hurricane Irene, which cut a path through the state that wiped out every single east-west route.

The Vermont folks had some helpful advice, Ford said. First and foremost, pay meticulous attention to filling out paperwork correctly and making deadlines, Ford said. That's critical when dealing with federal dollars.

The second thing was, understand that the rebuilding will take time.

"I know that Vermont, they are still in the recovery phase two years later," Ford said.

Progress is being made, she said. CDOT has opened eight highways in the past two days, including Colo. Highway 119 east of Longmont to Interstate 25, and Colo. Highway 66 west of Platteville.